The GDS wars, broken models and metasearch issues — JetBlue-style

JetBlue is pushing the message that the airline-GDS business model is broken and must change, leading up to negotiations next year.

In the last round of GDS negotiations in 2007, airlines such as American Airlines and Delta Airlines stridently warned that they would pull out of major GDSs if the carriers didn’t get their way.

In 2010, American is pledging to go outside of the GDSs again, this time through Farelogix, and JetBlue, in more thoughtful tones absent the rhetoric, is pushing the message that the airline-GDS business model is broken and must change, leading up to negotiations next year.

Noreen Courtney-Wilds, JetBlue’s vice president, sales, says the industry took “baby steps” in the last round of negotiations.